Off Grid Electric receives $16 million in growth funding round led by Zouk Capital
Off Grid Electric, the world’s leading off-grid energy provider, announced the closing of a $16 million funding round today led by Zouk Capital and SolarCity. The announcement comes on the heels of a $7 million funding announcement earlier this year, making Off Grid Electric one of the best capitalized companies in a sector that is quickly heating up. Along with Zouk Capital and SolarCity, Vulcan Capital, the private investment firm of Microsoft co-Founder Paul Allen, is making its second investment in the company.
The announcement comes as more good news for a company whose customer base has more than tripled since it was named winner of the Ashden Awards last March. In Tanzania, Off Grid Electric has delivered the highest solar adoption rates in the world, and has quickly become Africa’s leading provider of solar energy as a service. For less than $0.20 per day, customers are able to enjoy 50 times more light than from traditional sources.
Off Grid Electric CEO, Xavier Helgesen, said, “We have the potential to change 1 billion lives by making solar accessible and affordable to everyone.”
Zouk Capital is a London-based private equity fund manager that makes investments in companies which have a genuine environmental impact. “For us, this is a bet on a global solution.” says Samer Salty, Zouk Capital's CEO. “Off Grid Electric has the first truly scalable solution for their customers. We see the company reaching a million customers quite soon. Furthermore, Off Grid Electric is leapfrogging the Western world and proving that distributed energy is highly scalable, financially viable, and has an immediate positive impact on hundreds of millions of people.”
SolarCity has made its second major investment in Off Grid Electric since participating in the company’s funding round late last year. “Off Grid is expert at offering Africans what they want: clean, affordable electricity that can allow them to grow businesses, improve educational opportunity, and enrich their quality of life,” said SolarCity CEO Lyndon Rive. “Many people in Africa currently depend on inadequate kerosene lamps for power, and Off Grid knows how to give that market more light at less cost.”
“Off Grid Electric has the team, the vision and the technology to deliver distributed power to thousands, and eventually, millions of homes and businesses in parts of the world where grid electricity is non-existent,” says Vulcan Capital Managing Director, Steve Hall. “The Off Grid Electric solution represents a massive market opportunity that will serve as a foundational building block to drive economic development in these regions.”
Off Grid Electric reports big plans for 2015. “We have made number of engineering and operational breakthroughs that will dramatically increase our product offering and the quality of service,” Helgesen says, “we can barely keep up with demand right now.”
About Off Grid Electric
Off Grid Electric was founded by Erica Mackey, Joshua Pierce and Xavier Helgesen in late 2011 with a vision to light Africa in a decade. The company is based in Arusha, Tanzania. For more information, go to www.offgrid-electric.com
